Eight to Great: Eight Weeks of Action

I am finally to the point where enough is enough. It’s been a long year (years really) and I have finally decided to make some huge changes. I am so tired of saying I’m going to make some changes and doing nothing.

I am making a huge commitment for the next 8 weeks of 2022. Every big movement deserves a name and I am calling it:

 

Eight to Great

 

Do it or let it go. Find the time or let it go.

 

For the last few years I have been spending too much time thinking I need to plan out everything and to know 100% what I want. I’m so exhausted lately and I think it’s because I sit around thinking about how I need to have an amazing plan before I can start.

 

No, I need to run in the direction of my goals and course correct as needed!

 

Instead of thinking I need everything planned out before taking a single step, I can evaluate weekly and trust my gut. I keep wondering if this or that is what I want to truly do or something that I can do, but I won’t know until I give it my all.

 

There have been so many examples of this lately where I make excuses and do nothing even though I say I want something.

 

For over 30 years I have wanted to learn to play the piano. I begged for lessons as a child but they never happened. In college I took a piano class for an elective but I chickened out when I realized I had to play for recitals (by then my fears of any public speaking/performance were too great). Since then I didn’t do much toward my goal. 

 

I told myself it was because my keyboard was stowed deep in the garage. I had a keyboard with 61 keys that I moved from location to location over the years. Then when I finally got it out and set it up in our upstairs playroom, I still barely played it. I claimed it was because it was not full sized and it was upstairs, away from the family but without headphones so I couldn’t play it with them around.

 

Then recently I found a full size keyboard at Costco with weighted keys and a pair of headphones. We put it on the main floor since it was compact and quiet. Shockingly, I still haven’t played very often. I have everything I need to finally teach myself to play piano (I’d like to take lessons but not until I know I’m serious), and yet, I don’t. Why??

 

A similar situation has happened with the state of my house. I have said for so many years that I want to fully declutter my house and get completely organized. Yet here we are, stilling living with so many piles of random stuff and nowhere near organized.

 

I claimed that it’s because I never had time. Then the pandemic hit and we spent more time at home than ever before and I still made no progress. These days I find plenty of time to scroll social media, watch all nine seasons of Seinfeld, and think about planning.

 

In my days of working outside the home, I swore I could get my home under control if I worked from home. Save time on a commute, throw in a load of laundry at any time, and even use my lunch hours to purge my junk. Easy peasy.

 

Well I’ve been working from home now for over two years and I can tell you it has not been easy peasy. I don’t save time on a commute since I still take my kids to school in the morning or to their activities in the summer. I do throw in laundry but I don’t find time during the day to fold or put it away. And my lunch hours are few and far between. I’m usually eating at my desk while I work.

 

I could list so many coding projects, home projects, writing projects and planning projects I haven’t made any progress on. I have multiple coding projects I have been trying to finish for over 10 years. Ugh.

 

After all this procrastination and complete lack of progress, I have made a decision. There are eight weeks left in 2022 and I’m going to take those eight weeks as eight weeks of action. For the next eight weeks I’m going to put all my effort into doinginstead of thinking and planning.

 

At the end of the eight weeks, on December 31st, I will have a decision to make. Really though, the decision will be made for me.

 

If haven’t done anything and I’m still in the same place it is time to let that goal go.  I will let that goal go and not allow myself to plan or work on it for 6 months. I will try to come up with new goals and run toward those. This will help stop my excessive ruminating on goals I’m not actively pursuing.

 

Hopefully this will help me to shit or get off the pot. Start on my goals or purposely choose to not work on them. It’s time to make a choice.

 

Here’s to the next eight weeks of 2022. Do you have a goal or project you’ve been procrastinating on that it’s time to either make progress on or let go of the goal? Please let me know in the comments below. Let’s take some action together in the next eight weeks. Time to shit, people!